'Man on fire' from meth lab explosion causes Planet Fitness evacuation

SHELBY TWP., MIch. - A suspected meth lab exploded at a Shelby Township home - and the man inside ended up half a mile away at Planet Fitness.

It created a Hazmat scare which shut down the fitness center in Shelby Township for hours and dozens of people were forced out.

The frantic man had burns all over his body and stepped inside the Planet Fitness. People inside had to leave behind their keys and belongings.

"We heard this guy just started screaming and I looked and he just started running to the locker room," said Paul Kramer.

Kramer's bewilderment soon turned to panic as police evacuated roughly 50 people inside the Planet Fitness on 23 Mile and Van Dyke in Shelby Township.

"So we went into our locker room to get all our stuff apparently they were saying something about contamination or something," Kramer said.

Police say that screaming man was involved in a meth lab explosion just a few minutes earlier. It caused a fire inside this house in the 8000 block of Wiloray around 340 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Neighbors like Nick Leach doubled as firefighters until the real ones arrived.

"It was just god-awful in there and I hurried up and grabbed my dad real quick," he said. "And grabbed our garden hose and we pretty much, he was getting it from the window and I was getting it from the door for a minute."

The screaming man drove to the Planet Fitness and was on fire when he got out of his car.

"We had eyewitnesses that said the individual fled in a car that individual ended up here," said Mark Coil, Shelby Township police. "As
you can see behind us, he exited his car, He was on fire."

He rushed to the showers inside the Planet Fitness with meth making materials still inside his car. Shelby Township police evacuated the gym and cleared out the parking spaces near the man's vehicle.

"This rolling meth lab is highly volatile," Coil said. "The chemicals that are used in these situations to cook this type of product are
explosive and until we have the experts on scene we don't know what we're dealing with."

A Michigan State Police Hazmat team searched the man's car and home. First responders rushed him to Beaumont Hospital in Troy with severe burns over much of his body

And police say at last check that man was in stable condition. He is expected to be moved to another hospital, while a second suspect is sought.